A COVID-19 test site in British Columbia, Canada, December 18, 2021. Photo: Xinhuanews/VNA

On Tuesday, the US recorded its first death due to the Omicron variant – an unvaccinated, over-50-year-old man in Harris County, Texas. US health officials say the super-infectious Omicron variant has now become the main variant in the US. The same day, Israel recorded its first death from the Omicron variant - a man over 60 years old with underlying medical conditions who had received 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

As of Wednesday, more than 276.5 million COVID-19 cases and 5.38 million COVID deaths have been recorded worldwide, according to worldometer.info. Within the past 24 hours, more than 700,000 new cases and 6,700 deaths were reported.

The US remains the country hardest hit by COVID-19, followed by India and Brazil. Asia is the most severely affected continent, followed by Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Oceania.